Making e-Textile Things: A Craft-Based Approach for Building Resilience in the Age of Pandemic and Eco-Anxiety

Abstract

Funded by the University of Wollongong, Ecomakers project conducted e-textiles workshops at makerspaces with a focus on ecologically sustainable materials and processes. This paper reflects on how the COVID-19 experience reframed our environmentally-oriented workshops to connect mental health and well-being with eco-living. The research aims to find out how making e-textiles forms and a craft-based approach can affect participants’ sense of agency in times of the pandemic and climate crisis. In response to our government’s call to engage with mindfulness to alleviate anxieties induced by the pandemic, we expanded our project to emphasize how slow textile techniques including needle-felting, crochet, and sewing are conducive to contemplative practices. In delivering workshops in-person and online, we discovered how well-being can be fostered through environmental knowledge sharing and interactions in the making process, which lead to a sense of social connectedness. This article discusses the methodological, face-to-face, and online features of the workshops and findings based on observations and survey results. We conclude on how combining the concepts of making things, material thinking, and crafting enhances resilience in the face of the global pandemic and the climate emergency.

Keywords:

• e-Textiles
• making things
• material thinking
• “I Purple You”
• well-being
• environmental sustainability

Acknowledgment

We would like to express our thanks to Senior Professor Geoffrey Spinks, Rachel Balez, Alison Haynes, and the Future Makers research team.

Additional information

Funding

This research received funding from The University of Wollongong’s Global Challenges scheme.

Notes on contributors

Jo Law

Jo Law is a Senior Lecturer at the School of the Arts, English and Media, the University of Wollongong. Her research focuses on the transformative relationship between art and technology, drawing from philosophic enquiries to investigate materialist practices and processes. Jo is interested in how the textual imprints of media and materials in artworks shape human experience. Jo’s creative works have been exhibited in Australia and internationally including at the Parsons School of Design (New York), Life Gallery (Dundee), Videotage (Hong Kong), and the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (Sydney). [email protected]

Agnieszka Golda

Agnieszka Golda is a Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Arts at the School of the Arts, English and Media, the University of Wollongong. Agnieszka’s research focuses on cultural politics of feeling in the contexts of feminism, migration, and the Anthropocene. She is interested in how the communicative capacity of materials can generate spaces that stimulate environmental awareness and transform attitudes towards the natural world. Her artworks are shaped by her enduring interest in the imaginary and the mythical drawn from traditional Eastern European folklore, Japanese anime, manga and amigurumi, and electronic textiles. Agnieszka’s artworks have been exhibited internationally in Japan, Mexico, the UK, and Australia. [email protected]